Thursday’s meme economy was flooded with images of the newly named Pope Leo XIV, born in Chicago with the given name Robert Prevost. There’s a long tradition of humanizing the clergy for laughs, from the satirical bawdy stories published in “The Decameron” in the 14th century all the way to “Sister Act” and “Family Guy.

Robert Prevost, a missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and took over the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops, was elected the first pope from the United States in the 2,000-year

The Prevost family belonged to the now-shuttered St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in the Riverdale neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, then populated by throngs of Catholic families.